With This Simple & Free Device, the Blind Can Identify Currency Notes and Not Get Cheated

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The Tiffy Template is a frugal invention to help the blind identify currency notes and avoid being short changed. Every blind person in India can get the Tiffy Template for free.

A blind girl named Tiffany Brar is a crusader for independent living for the visually challenged. Tiffany travels alone by public transport, runs a mobile school for the blind and is inspiring other people to become independent too.

In her quest for independent living, Tiffany encountered a problem when it came to transacting with currency notes. She was not quite able to identify the different denominations and found that people cheated her sometimes.

She mentioned this to her friend Paul D’Souza, an obsessive innovator, who solved her problem right away with a simple invention.

Paul developed a grooved plate that is as small as a credit card. He named it after Tiffany and called it the Tiffy Template. By folding and placing currency notes on the Tiffy Template, any blind person can differentiate between the notes.

There is a pattern to the length and width of each Indian currency note. Paul made grooves on the template to help the blind ascertain the different widths and lengths of the notes.

The steps in the template indicate the length of the notes and there is a small notch on the side to measure width.

The Tiffy Template with steps on the top and a notch on the side

To explain further, the 10 rupee and 20 rupee notes are of the same width but the 20 rupee note is longer than the 10. The ten comes up to the first step and the twenty to the second step on the top of the template, but both fit within the hold of the notch on the side.

Higher denominations, 50, 100 and 500 rupee notes, are broader than 10 and 20. The are all the same width but become longer as the denomination goes higher. To simple rule to identify the notes is — the higher the step, the higher the denomination. The 5 rupee note is too small for the template and the 1000 rupee note, the biggest, covers it completely, so these are very easy to identify.

There are Braille inscriptions also on the sides of the template, which make it further easy to differentiate between the notes.

Manufacturing the Tiffy Template will cost Paul just Rs. 2 per piece – that’s as frugal as an innovation can get! Paul has raised funds for manufacturing through crowdfunding and will make the Tiffy Template available to all the 15 million blind people in India for free.

You can contact Paul at: tmttblr@gmail.com

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